H-1B visa fee hike: Visa order triggers surge in last-minute flight bookings to U.S.

Travel agents observed a surge in last-minute flight bookings to the U.S. on Saturday (September 20, 2025), following the Trump administration’s announcement of a $100,000 annual fee for H-1B work visas. However, Air India said there is no noticeable trend as yet.

Reports said that several tech giants such as Microsoft, JPMorgan and Amazon responded to the announcement — which will come into effect on Sunday (September 21, 2025) — by advising H-1B visa-holding employees who are outside the U.S. to return before midnight on Saturday, and others to remain in the U.S..

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Airlines are adopting a wait-and-see approach to assess the impact on flight cancellations between the U.S. and India.

“There has been a notable increase in last-minute bookings to the USA since this morning. This increase in bookings for same-day or next-day travel is atypical for a long-haul segment,” said a MakeMyTrip spokesperson. This was observed both for direct flights from India, as well as one-stop flights, people in the know said.